Balancing act
 
Sherry Boas
Sentinel Correspondent

October 20, 2002

Nicole Parillo has lived in Florida for only a few months, but that was long enough to notice that one alligator in the small pond behind her house was acting differently from any other alligator she had observed.

"Our pool's lanai area is about 15 to 20 feet from the edge of the water. It's even closer when it rains, and one alligator kept hanging around whenever my children or our dog were outside playing," says the Oviedo mother of two children, ages 2 and 7.

"When the alligator started to camp out by the side of the house as if he were waiting for our dog, a little Shih Tzu, to come out, we decided to call the fish and wildlife control."

A permitted nuisance alligator trapper responded quickly to Parillo's call, and within a day, the 51/2-foot-long alligator had been caught and removed.

Parillo's call is typical of thousands received annually by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's northeast region, which serves 14 counties in Central and Northeast Florida. The agency is responsible for responding to nuisance alligator calls in the Central Florida counties of Orange, Seminole, Osceola and Lake.

The commission was among the agencies that responded late last month when Don Goodman, director of Kanapaha Botanical Gardens in Gainesville, had his right arm bitten off just below the elbow by an 11-foot alligator. The attack occurred during the afternoon while Goodman, park director since 1978, was wading in thigh-deep water about 20 feet offshore, clearing mats of algae from a waterlily garden.

Goodman was aware that the alligator, nicknamed MoJo by the staff, lived in the pond, but he says he had neglected to check its whereabouts before entering the water.

"I had been working about five minutes when I just ran into him," Goodman said in an interview with The Associated Press. "MoJo had been resting on the bottom, and he probably saw the shadow of the net as I moved it across the surface. He lunged at it. It was an instinctual move."

Joy M. Hill, public information coordinator for the commission's Northeast Region, says awareness of alligator habits is essential information for Florida residents.

"There are alligators in all 67 Florida counties, and there is a potential for alligators to be in any body of water, big or small," she says. "Anyone considering living on a waterfront property should become informed about alligators."

In 2001 her office received 4,884 nuisance alligator complaints – 2,442 of which resulted in alligators being captured by permitted nuisance trappers.

"The reason [for those complaints] is that as the days grow longer and warmer, the alligators emerge from their winter torpor and wander about in search of food and mates," says Hill. "During the course of this wandering, they sometimes end up in the wrong places."

The wrong places could be a golf course, a garage, a back yard, a driveway or a swimming pool.

What's normal behavior?

So what should you do if an alligator ambles through your property?

"If there's no immediate danger, the best thing to do is leave it alone," advises Hill. "More than likely it will leave the area on its own in search of a more suitable location. However, if humans, pets or livestock are being threatened by the alligator's presence, you should call the FWC and file a nuisance alligator complaint."

But how is a homeowner to know when an alligator is acting threateningly, and what is the difference between normal alligator behavior and aggressive behavior?

"Most alligators will quickly retreat at the approach of a human. If they don't, they've likely lost their natural fear and could become a problem," says Hill.

Parillo adds her perspective: "There are other alligators in our pond, but when we come outside, they head away. The alligator that the trapper caught did the opposite. He swam closer to the shore whenever our dog or the kids came out back."

As a permitted nuisance alligator trapper for the state of Florida for 18 years, Jimmy Douglas knows alligator behavior inside-and-out. The 39-year-old is a second-generation trapper whose father began working for the program in 1980, two years after it was established. Douglas has seen just about everything related to alligators.

"I've been on calls where an alligator is under a mobile home, under a car, in garages, in the sewer systems and in swimming pools. I've even seen them climb over a chain-link fence. I guess I've seen everything except one on top of a house or in a tree," says the Wildwood resident who responds to nuisance gator reports in Sumter, Lake and Orange counties.

Douglas emphasizes how important it is not to feed alligators.

"They are definitely not pets," he says. "An alligator who has been fed becomes a threat."

Teaching the public

Educating the public about how to coexist with alligators is an important part of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission's job.

"Although most people have a natural respect for and fear of alligators, some residents and visitors seem to forget that alligators are very real and can be dangerous. Some people think there is no harm in throwing them an occasional sandwich or piece of chicken, but that practice is dangerous, unlawful and can contribute to attacks," says Hill, adding that alligators that are fed will quickly lose their fear of people and learn to approach them because they associate people with food.

That was what Parillo thinks may have happened to the alligator that was threatening her family.

"From what I understand, some of our neighbors were feeding him. The trapper said the alligator was no longer afraid of people."

But, unlike Parillo's call, not all the complaints registered with the conservation commission are valid. Sometimes people, especially those new to the state, become frightened even at the sight of an alligator swimming in a pond.

"Some of the complaints are valid and some aren't," says Lt. Gregg Eason, the wildlife commission's nuisance alligator program coordinator for the Northeast Region. "People should only report alligators that are causing problems or posing a threat to public safety. They should not, for example, report an alligator that is simply sunning itself on a bank or the fact that it is present in a lake near a house. Those alligators are just doing what alligators do.

"Emergency complaints – those where an alligator is an immediate threat to public safety – will be given priority. But all valid complaints, emergency in nature or not, will be evaluated, and if necessary, a nuisance trapper will be sent to harvest the gator."

Florida has contracts with about 40 private trappers to remove nuisance alligators. Alligators 6 feet and longer pose the greatest hazard to humans and pets. Nuisance alligators 5 feet or longer are trapped and captured. Smaller alligators that are acting threateningly may be moved by the trappers.

Although they are newcomers to the state, the Parillos have become better informed and responsible Floridians because of their experience with the rogue alligator in their backyard pond.

"We were extremely happy with the response," Parillo says of the wildlife commission. "We love animals, but when it comes to an animal being a threat to our kids we felt we had to do something."

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